LABESS

Gipsy Chaabi

The Algerian born Nedjim Bouizzoul, the son of a musician, borrowed his father's guitar and began playing at an early age. At age 16, he played with the Algerian group, Fiesta Day. In the midst of Algerian internal conflicts, he fled with his family to Canada. It was there that he decided to dedicate himself entirely to his musical career, exploring its many diverse angles before the Montreal Metro commuters. In 2004, Nadjim founded his band Labess in which he sings in arabic, french and spanish. The group brilliantly fused traditional north african instruments (krakeb) with bass,clarinet, trompet, guitar, drums and percussion. Labess sound palette created a superb contemporary fusion style with Cuban guarancha, flamenco, gypsy rumba and North African traditional music that soon attracted the attention of fellow professionals in the local music community. The debut album "Tout va bien" was released in 2007, and was widely acclaimed by the press and honoured by nominations at the ASDIQ (Quebec's Juno Awards) and at the Canadian Music Award. This popularity led them to be featured on Canadian radio (Espace Musique) and live tv shows (Belle et Bum) as well as live performances in Quebec (Divan Orange, les Bobards, le Batallon). Labess was also the opening act in Rachid Taha's festival tour throughout Canada (Francofolies de Montréal, Festival du Monde Arabe, Rythmes du monde du Saguenay and Centre National des Arts) before a breakthrough in Europe, Cuba, South America, North Africa, Uganda. 5 years later Identité, a harmonious and colourful second album, was released. The third album is scheduled to be released April 2016.